DAY SIXTY-FIVE:Nov. 14:
It was a sobering day in New York. Read no further if you are teetering on the edge of depression.
The day began with sunshine and chill, which would be lovely except that New York is in a serious drought.
Then New York State Budget Director Carole E. Stone announced that State tax collections dropped $1.3 billion, or 15 percent, from July through September, the largest decline since the state began recording quarterly data 33 years ago. Stone blamed the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, which hurt business and led the state to extend tax payment deadlines. And Governor George Pataki said the attack on the World Trade Center is having a "truly enormous" effect on state finances. The state will collect at least $1.63 billion less than expected by the end of the fiscal year on March 31, 2002, and. "Significant risks still exist" that this year's loss will reach $3 billion. In the fiscal year that starts April 1, 2002, state tax collections could be down by as much as $6 billion, Pataki said: "Never in the history of this state have we seen revenue fall so sharply," not even following the Crash of 1929.
Just in time for lunch the CEO of the Tribune Coporation, which owns Newsday and 17 other newspapers, sent out a cheery E-memo to all employees, further brightening our day:
Dear Fellow Employee, Later today, Tribune will announce a series of measures designed to reduce expenses company-wide.........
As you know, the economy has been in a downturn this year, and we are experiencing the worst advertising environment since the Depression. The September 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington only made a bad situation even worse. All of these events have had a negative impact on our company's revenues this year, and on our operating profit. Through three quarters this year, our operating profit from continuing operations is down 37% compared to 2000. In fact, after restructuring charges in the third quarter, the company recorded its first quarterly loss in ten years.
After a few paragraphs praising employees for their valiant cost-cutting efforts the CEO got to the meat of the matter:
1. Approximately 140 senior managers across the company will take a five percent reduction in salary, effective January 1, 2002.
2. Effective January 1, 2002, the salaries of all employees not covered by a collective bargaining agreement will be frozen for the year.
3. Approximately 18,000 Tribune employees not covered by a collective bargaining agreement will be eligible for a special one-time merit-based incentive-individual grants of Tribune stock options.
4. Hiring will be limited to critical functions and must be approved by the business unit CEO, who will notify the group president.
We appreciate all you are doing for Tribune, and your understanding in the days and months ahead. We have been through difficult times before. We get through these times by working together, and by operating even more efficiently. When the economy turns around-as we know it will-Tribune will be stronger than ever; but only if we act now.
That last graph reads remarkably like President George Bush's speech from Atlanta on Sunday. Amid crisis, we are instructed to keep a stiff upper lip, face the future with a smile and "be normal".
But what the heck is "normal"?
The people of New York City, and to a lesser degree of the entire nation, will be experiencing waves of depression and anxiety due to the events of September 11 for "years to come", Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson said today in a speech here in Manhattan. Speaking in City Center, a dance and theater venue behind Carnegie Hall, Thompson warned an audience of government mental health experts that the worst may be yet to come. Just as the plane crash this week in Queens awoke latent depression and trauma in many New Yorkers, so further events and tragedies in coming months and years will hit the national psyche additional blows, he omened.
Thompson stood on a stage, flanked by enormous video projections that were waving American flags. Every now and then a repeating cycle of quotes appeared on the screens, superimposed on the "flags". They were pithy ditties meant to pluck up spirits: "The only cure for grief is action." - George Henry Lewes "Make no mistake -- we will get through this. We are Americans. We will persevere." - Tommy Thompson (You get the idea: Think patriotic psychiatry.)
"Rest assured, I know, and the American public knows, that without your help and your compassion there would be a great deal more suffering in America," Thompson told the mental health workers from around the nation at the HHS-sponsored National Summit: When Terror Strikes. "America 's coming to grips with a changed world. One where terror has taken the lives of 5,000 of our citizens...Our battle is the battle against fear. When we take contro lof our lives we strike a blow against fear. This national will never be intimidated. Life in America is going forward. And that is the ultimate repudiation of terror."
While HHS and the nation wait for the next shoe to drop -- whatever terrorist event, if any, lurks in America 's near future -- there is an unaddressed sense of, "unease, emotional discomfort of unprecedented scope, made all the more real by the tragic crash of a jet in Queens," Charles Currie, director of HHS ' Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, said yesterday at the Summit. "We are creating a different definition of what 'normal ' means," Currie continued. "What each of us now face -- what the Nation faces -- could not be imagined before (September 11) that day. 'Normal ' most certainly isn 't what it used to be."
In the days immediately following the attack on the World Trade Center 44 percent of adults nationwide experienced one or more clinical symptoms of severe stress, and 47 percent were worried about their own personal safety and travel, according to a joint UCLA/Rand Coporation survey that will be published tomorrow in the New England Journal of Medicine. The UCLA/Rand Coporation stress study found that 'normal ' for nearly half of all Americans means sleep loss, irritability, repeated nightmares or bad memories, difficulty in concentrating and outbrusts of inappropriate anger. "It remains to be seen whether stress reactions in people throughout the country will indeed diminish, especially with futher triggers from ongoing threats and further attacks," the study says. "The psychological effects of the recent terrorism are unlikely to disappear soon...The events of September 11 made Americans realize that the United States is vulnerable to attack on a scvale that few thought possible. If there are further attacks, clinicians should anticipate that even people far from the attacks will have trauma-related symptoms of stress."
The good news is the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has begun calling in its troops, putting many back to former tasks in the agency 's Atlanta headquarters, Dr. James Hughes, director of the agency 's National Center for Infectious Diseases, said today. The CDC believes that they have seen the last of the anthrax cases related to letters mailed in September. But that doesn 't mean the spending, and mounting costs, will now hit a plateau: "We remain at a very high level of alert and we will do so until the perpetrator is caught," Hughes said.
So, apparently, do the American people. Can we really be expected to execute "normal" Christmas shopping in this atmosphere? How will the economy survive a no-shopping X-mas?
Down at Ground Zero today rescue workers recovered the body of another victim -- the first identifiable body in a month. The level of despair in this town is exemplified by the fact that this gruesome event was cause for celebration. Meanwhile, based on DNA analysis of bits of flesh from the debris the State Supreme Court in Manhattan pronounced fifty more individuals officially dead:
1) Giordano, Jeffrey John, 45, Staten Island, N.Y.
2) Lee, Linda C., 34, Manhattan, N.Y.
3) Jenkins, Joseph Jr., 47, Brooklyn, N.Y.
4) Beale, Michele, 37, Billency, England
5) Safi, Jude, 24, Brooklyn, N.Y.
6) Rosenbaum, Brooke David, 31, Franklin Square, N.Y.
7) Quinn, James Francis, 23, Brooklyn, N.Y.
8) McHugh, Michael E., 35, Tuckahoe, N.Y.
9) Cullinan, Joan McConnell, aka Joan M. McConnel, 47, Scarsdale, N.Y.
10) Langone, Thomas Michael, 39, Williston Park, N.Y.
11) Lynch, Sean Patrick, 36, Morristown, N.J.
12) Rivers, David E., 40, Manhattan, N.Y.
13) Rivera, Isaias, 51, Perth Amboy, N.J.
14) Pattison, Robert Edward, 40, Manhattan, N.Y.
15) Sullivan, Christopher P., 38, Massapequa, N.Y.
16) Smagala, Stanley S. Jr., 36, Holbrook, N.Y.
17) Ruback, Paul G., 50, Newburgh, N.Y.
18) Rossomando, Nicholas P., 35, Staten Island, N.Y.
19) Rogan, Matthew, 37, West Islip, N.Y.
20) Regan, Robert M., 48, Floral Park, N.Y.
21) Palmer, Orio J., 45, Valley Stream, N.Y.
22) Palazzo, Jeffrey Matthew, 33, Staten Island, N.Y.
23) Olson, Steven John, 38, Staten Island, N.Y.
24) O 'Callaghan, Daniel, 42, Smithtown, N.Y.
25) Nagel, Robert B., 55, Manhattan, N.Y.
26) McSweeney, Timothy Patrick, 37, Staten Island, N.Y.
27) Mascali, Joseph A., 44, Staten Island, N.Y.
28) Marino, Kenneth Joseph, 40, Monroe, N.Y.
29) Kerwin, Ronald T., 42, Levittown, N.Y.
30) Kelly, Thomas Richard, 38, Riverhead, N.Y.
31) Harrell, Harvey L., 49, Staten Island, N.Y.
32) Grzelak, Joseph, 52, Staten Island, N.Y.
33) Fodor, Michael N., 53, Warwick, N.Y.
34) Esposito, Francis, 32, Staten Island, N.Y.
35) DeRubbio, David Paul, 38, Brooklyn, N.Y.
36) D 'Atri, Edward Alexander, 38, Staten Island, N.Y.
37) Crawford, Robert James, 62, Brooklyn, N.Y.
38) Butler, Thomas M., 37, Kings Park, N.Y.
39) Brown, Patrick J., 48, Manhattan, N.Y.
40) Bini, Carl Vincent, 44, Staten Island, N.Y.
41) Baptiste, Gerard, 35, Bronx, N.Y.
42) Reich, Howard, 59, Queens, N.Y.
43) Lisson, Paul, 45, Brooklyn, N.Y.
44) Ong, Betty Ann, 45, Andover, Mass.
45) Smith, Sandra Fajardo, aka Fajardo, Sandra Tavares, 37, Queens, N.Y.
46) Sloan, Paul K., 26, Manhattan, N.Y.
47) Diehl, Michael, 48, Bricktown, N.J.
48) Eagleson, John Bruce, 53, Middlefield, Conn.
49) Millman, Benjamin, 40, Staten Island, N.Y.
50) Kirby, Chris Michael, 21, Bronx, N.Y.
Take a deep breath: there's more.
Investigation into the cause of Monday's Flt 587 jet crash in Queens continued today, with evidence of engine failure mounting. The flight recorder revealed no evidence of a bomb or explosion, so New Yorkers are "relieved" that terrorism can be ruled out.
After all of this I think the most "normal" thing I can do tonight is down a couple of stiff martinis. Here's to you.
Be well. Stay safe. Stand defiant.
Laurie Garrett
